1146 - William Byrne, Carnarvon Castle in North Wales after Richard Wilson, engraving 1775

William Byrne, Carnarvon Castle in North Wales after Richard Wilson, engraving 1775 Copper engraving on paper after Richard Wilson, lettered in the plate below the image in English and French 'CARNARVON CASTLE' and 'LE CHATEAU DE CARNARVON', with the details of painter and engraver and the publisher's line, published in 1775 by John Boydell in London. Above a wide expanse of water the many-towered castle lies in the middle ground; at the right a tall, lightly foliaged group of trees stands on the bank with people and cattle resting beneath it, at the left a path along the shore leads into the depth. The sky occupies the upper half of the picture. Age-appropriate condition, browned, stained, margins torn and creased, thinned areas. Image 36 x 51.5 cm (HxW), overall size approx. 42 x 55 cm (HxW) Richard Wilson (1714–1782) is regarded as the founder of British landscape painting; he transferred the pictorial formulae of the Roman Campagna landscape to Welsh and English subjects. William Byrne (1743–1805) was one of the leading landscape engravers of his time and worked regularly for John Boydell. Boydell in turn built up the English engraving trade with his publishing house into a European export business and became Lord Mayor of London in 1790; the bilingual lettering of his sheets was aimed precisely at this foreign market. Caernarfon Castle was built from 1283 under Edward I and is today part of the World Heritage.